33percents Compal EL80 Review

Why I chose El80....
Okay so i've been looking for a new laptop for a few months now... i started off looking at an HP5020 then to an acer 8200 then to an asus 96j and finally the compal El80, now i did alot of research on compal and saw that they built
alot of high quality notebooks (and a few low quality ones aswell) but most people were happy with theirs.... after deciding on the El80 I had already really made up my mind who to purchase from after them being so helpful with all of my questions on the 96j and the El80, I chose www.powernotebooks.com I spoke to both ron and donald and they both helped me though all of my stupid questions and interest over the machine.

The Specs
CPU: Intel® Yonah Core-Duo T2500 2.00GHz 2M 667 FSB
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR-2 667 SODIMM (2X1024)
HD: Hitachi 100GB 7200rpm S-ATA
Internal Wireless Card: Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 Tri-mode
Display: 15.4" WXGA 1280 x 800 Glossy
VGA: Nvidia 7600 256mb PCI-E
Optical Drive: 8 x DVD-RW Dual Layer Super Multi
Camera: Built-in Camera
3 year warranty with next day shipping both ways
No OS


Initial Reactions
LCD: Wow!! this thing is bright! its a gorgeous screen and the glossy screen really hasnt been a problem so far i can hardly see what people are talking about with the lights unless its dark when there are light colours on the screen it looks gorgeous and i personally think that its the nicest laptop screen i've ever seen

Keyboard: Its a nice keyboard it has flex on the right side and the rest of the keys are very bouncy and easy to type on its good except when using the scroll keys also its slightly different to my old laptop keyboard so trying to get used to it is proving slightly difficult but i'm getting there

Heat: Okay so the fans are always running but you can hardly hear them in comparison to the other fans i've heard on laptops theres a little blow when i first start up and then nothing for the rest of the time the laptop doesnt get hot but its quite warm here at the moment very humid so i think that the laptop feels hotter because if this but its no problems its alot cooler than my old notebook even after playing half life 2 for an hour

Batterylife: will update later.

Looks: This thing is gorgeous and i love it from the aluminium around the keyboard to the curve at the top of the monitor its absolutely amazing and the metal makes it look gorgeous I even think the powernotebook badge on the front looks pretty cool

Speakers: for laptop speakers i'm thinking these are actually quite good they're loud enough and are just slightly quieter than the speakers in my tv but what makes them really good is you can actually feel the bass on your hands there's no crackle as there usually is with notebook speakers when you fully blast it out as i'm doing now listening to punk/rock music theres very little crackle and alot of bass good speakers these are also nicely positioned on the front of the laptop where you will mostly be sitting.



Final Thoughts on Build Quality: MMmm gorgeous its a great strong laptop its very solid and it doesnt feel breakable at all infact i'm more scared of my arms being caught under the screen

Program Install
Okay so i didnt buy with an o/s so i had to install windows this took a good 45 minutes which wasnt crazy infact it was okay i had no problem with that let me take a few pictures and actually eat I installed half life 2.. football manager 2006(being english i have to have the football/soccer game) i installed my slingbox and zone alarm and avast! which i've been using for a while on all of my computers and i find them easy to use this took the best part of 2 hours and then came copying files over.... that took 5-6 hours to copy all needed files from my old laptop to this new one


Games: Half life 2....
this runs really really well and it looks great with everything set to high its gorgeous i havent played any really modern games the last game i played all the way through was the first half life and all of the add on packs but this looks amazing and its good... i have a problem using the touchpad and keyboard at the same time but i think i just need an external mouse

Football Manager 2006...
Well if you dont know about this game its really not graphically intensive at all but its very ram and processor intensive but still it runs 10-15 times faster on this than on my old laptop games are processed in a fraction of the time and with this screen it makes it easier to see things

anyways I will update with more if any questions are asked etc...

 

Thanks for your review and will look forward to updates. After I get mine and get it set up, will try to report back also as time passes.

1. Did you change the clock setting on the video card or just leave it at the defualt adn thanks.

2. Did you have any problems installing any drivers and did you leave any drivers out?

3. Did you stay with the supplied video driver or did you install another and if so, what and how did you install it?

Hope you don't mind the questions.

Gary

 

Questions are fine everything is stock on the video card i havent changed the clock settings and the video drivers are the standard on the cd... I didnt install the final 3 items on the cd... watchdog..wireless select switch and sidewalker... if paladin or someone can tell me what they do and if they're useful then i may install them

 

Thanks for the review, I think I am decided on getting this unit now I was 90% sure before the review but hearing someone throughts that actually bought it has swayed me to 99%. I would be interested in hearing the speaker quality and battery life, I think I will place my order as soon as I find out for sure that it is a MXM laptop, if it isn't I don't think it is going to worry me to much but I would like ot know for sure.

 

i've just updated about the speakers up above I probably wont get time to do battery time until tomorrow or monday i'm going to have a look at the IOMP now

 

erm i have no idea how to get the IOMP to work... paladin hellpp!! lol

 

For something on those utilities you were asking about whether you should install or not, please go to http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1441045&postcount=97

Gary

 

ooh thanks i knew i remembered seeing something about it i'll prob install the wireless one and for the programmable buttons

 

Leave Watchdog off...it is a lousy power management utility. Use the one in your Windows Control Panel instead.

Wireless select switch should be installed if you are using Bluetooth and/or 802.11a/b/g wireless.

Sidewalker should be loaded to program the two buttons to the left of your power button (they are labeled 1 and 2). They can then be used to program those buttons to open any application of your choice.

 

any idea about the IOMP?

 

The video card is not MXM, but it is a modular PCI-e daughter board.

We used BatteryEater to test the battery life and found on Classic setting where the program makes the computer constantly active with LCD, processor and hard drive activity we got about 3.5 hours. On Idle setting we got about 4.5 hours...which means for regular computing you should expect about 3.5 to 4+ hours.

 

With your computer shut down press the On/Off button to the left of the keyboard...load a CD or DVD...use the rest of the buttons there on the left of the keyboard to control play.

Make sure you turn your IOMP off before trying to boot your PowerPro L 8:15.

If you need more help, call our 24/7 Customer Service for PowerPro models at (877) 944-4449.

 

okay i'll give it another try in a second is there like a minimum amount of time i need to push the on button or does it take a while to start up?

 

Ron has our PowerPro L 8:15 this weekend, so I can't test it. I loaded all the drivers, but I can't remember if there is an IOMP driver...so double check that first.

If you haven't figured it out by Monday let me know.

 

yeah still not working i guess i'll give a call on monday... hmm seems strange.. everything else is great tho

 

Thanks Paladin for answering everything, you guys really do go out of your way to help.

 

Thank you aurawolf

 

What would happen should you forget to turn off the IOMP before booting? Would that cause a problem or would it simply not be able to boot with IOMP still on?

 

The universe would implode, starting with your notebook.

 

COOL! I always wanted to see what that would look like. Everyone please have all of your affairs in order by the end of the week. I should be receiving my HEL80 around there...

 

okay so i dont know what happened but my keyboard bounce has gone (for the time being anyways) i dont know what happened but now there is no bounce... maybe something wasnt stuck in right?? no idea but it seems all fixed now

 

You guys crack me up...

If you don't turn it off, your computer will not boot up...and this will cause your life to implode.

 

i'ma scared now but what if you boot up and then you try to turn on the IOMP! :O scared :O

 

That will implode your life as well...and your cat's life if you have one.

 

phew thankfully *I* dont have a cat lol any luck with actually getting the IOMP to work lol

 

We will have an answer on how the IOMP works later today.

 

Hmm, Compal's just implode I guess Dell's have an exclusive contract on the exploding laptops ZING!

 

We will have an answer on how the IOMP works later today...or maybe later tomorrow...or,

Compal is working on it, and we will bring the answer back here as soon as possible.

 

Can you take some pictures? I've seen the ones at PowerNotebooks, but would like to see some 'real' ones instead of the sale ones.

Thanks for the review

 

'real' ones?

How are the pictures we took not real? Our camera is as good as anyone else's isn't it?

 

i have some pictures of it just its my brothers camera so need 2 steal him comp 2 get them online

 

The white backdrop makes them look fake

Plus they're just overview pics. Usually when someone gets a new toy, they'll take pictures of the features or stuff they like. The buttons on the left/top of the keyboard, lights, etc.

My girlfriends Digital Rebel XT > my camera

 

Did you actually go into the Picture Gallery and scroll down to see all of the pictures?

 

Um, though I do think the pictures are good enough for me, they are still on a white background

 

Yes, a white background does not distract from the laptop. Why would you want to look at something in the background when it is the details of laptop that you want to see?

 

Perhaps he wants to ensure the hues and colors of the notebook won't disturb the Feng Shui of his place of residence and/or office...

 

Um, maybe they just don't like that shade of white

 

The editted the laptop to a white background becuase as paladin said "Why would you want to look at something in the background?" When I worked for a computer store and setup the website all images I placed on the site were on white backgrounds. I have also seen where people use black backgrounds but that tends to screw up the visual edges of some items.

 

I think he is talking about close ups of the laptop, like in some reviews on this site. (A8ja review, scroll down)

 

How to use the DVD and Audio DJ Buttons on the HEL80 is now in its own thread

 

Yeah, but you know, there are no reference of the sizes. And the resolution is not enough to see the conectors closer. They are still nice, I don't deny it, but I agree they are not "real"

 

This is a pretty old thread... try not to bump old threads next time.